Assets lens on senior cop

RAMASHANKAR

Patna, Jan. 28: Nothing is permanent.

Bir Chandra Prasad Singh, the director of industries in the prison department, was awarded Presidentís medal for his outstanding contribution. Two years later, he is on the radar of the special vigilance unit for allegedly amassing huge property disproportionate to his known sources of income.

Sleuths of the unit carried out simultaneous searches on the office and the residential premises of Singh in Patna, Muzaffarpur and Sitamarhi and found movable and immovable property worth Rs 6.65 crore today. Singh was present in his official quarter (No. 21/60) at the officersí flat beside the Bailey Road in Patna at the time of the search operation.

The unitís inspector-general Praveen Vashishtha said during initial searches, documents related to movable property worth Rs 5.63 crore and immovable property worth 1.01 crore were found. Singh had invested in real estate in Gurgaon, Delhi and in different parts of Bihar, including Patna. He had purchased two plots measuring 4,400sqft in Patnaís SK Puri where construction work started recently.

Vashishtha, who is heading the stateís anti-corruption wing, revealed that Singh had bought a hotel named Royal Kings Resort at Nageshwar Colony in the name of his wife Nirmala Singh for around Rs 1.98 crore. His wife also owned a flat (No. 404) in Veena Mansion at Nageshwar Colony. The flat was purchased for just Rs 17 lakh despite the fact that the rooms on the third and fourth floors were being used for commercial purposes.

In addition, Singh owned four plots in prime locations at Muzaffarpur. The plots were purchased for just Rs 12.27 lakh on Jawahar Lal Road and Sikandarpur in the town. Documents related to purchase of land at Sitamarhi for Rs 7.15 lakh, bank deposits of Rs 33.6 lakh, investments in the insurance policies worth Rs 22.6 lakh and investment in Royal Kings Resort to the tune of Rs 44.5 lakh were also seized during the raid.